Big Ten / ACC Challenge 2011

Now in its thirteenth year, the annual Big Ten/ACC Challenge is always an entertaining tour of the college basketball world, but this year is extra special, as all twelve teams in both conferences will participate, thanks to the addition of Nebraska to the Big Ten.

While the Challenge has historically been controlled by the ACC, winning the first ten times these two conferences tangled, the Big Ten has won two in a row, and is in good position to make it three this year. Lots of talent, lots of tangles...it's what college basketball should be. And what college football should try, too.

ESPN has all the action, with times listed below in EST:

Tuesday, Nov. 29th Michigan at Virginia [7:00 p.m., ESPN2]
Tuesday, Nov. 29th Northwestern at Georgia Tech [7:15 p.m., ESPNU]
Tuesday, Nov. 29th Illinois at Maryland [7:30 p.m., ESPN]
Tuesday, Nov. 29th Miami at Purdue [9:00 p.m., ESPN2]
Tuesday, Nov. 29th Clemson at Iowa [9:15 p.m., ESPNU]
Tuesday, Nov. 29th Duke at Ohio State [9:30 p.m., ESPN]
Wednesday, Nov.30th Indiana at NC State [7:15 p.m., ESPN2]
Wednesday, Nov.30th Penn State at Boston College [7:15 p.m., ESPNU]
Wednesday, Nov.30th Florida State at Michigan State [7:30 p.m., ESPN]
Wednesday, Nov.30th Virginia Tech at Minnesota [9:15 p.m., ESPN2]
Wednesday, Nov.30th Wake Forest at Nebraska [9:15 p.m., ESPNU]
Wednesday, Nov.30th Wisconsin at North Carolina [9:30 p.m., ESPN]

Two days of awesome. I'm calling it: Big Ten over ACC 7-5.

Comments

"The Silver Gun" by Robert Palmer (1983)

I mean...Urdu? Seriously, Urdu . On an already eclectic and worldly album -- Pride , from 1983 -- "The Silver Gun" closes a chapter in Robert Palmer's career by singing a song about a horse in a language spoken daily by over 100 million people. The liquid bass line and propulsive electronics set out a bedrock for Palmer to ping phrasings rather out of place in Western music, askew astride even the peripatetic minimalism of the rest of the record. Somehow, in the middle of Michigan's Appalachia, I had this on vinyl a few years before the CD era officially commenced. It was an album of effort -- even the cover, a pointillism-and-bronze work, had Palmer's head barely above the water -- but the stitches didn't show to my pre-adolescent eyes and ears. In a career marked by zigs and zags, Pride and "The Silver Gun" were most certainly Other, and for a kid that felt like he didn't belong much of anywhere, it was nice to have those discrete feeling...

"I'll Drive You Home"

Upon reflection, I’ve had a fortunate life in the area of work. As a freshly minted teenager, I would visit Evergreen Park Grocery and dream of someday working there like my father did, and at the age of 14, I got $2/hour to live out that dream, such as it was. From there, I yearned to try other occupations, from record stores to teaching, and I’d be chuffed to tell Young Erick that both of those things happened in due course. ( Oh, and Young Erick, one of them got you to meet David Bowie, and one of them got you to own houses and cars, so I’ll let you ponder on which one was better. ) I even got to DJ a bit here and there, and while it never hit the heights of a professional radio gig, it was certainly better than the summer I played preset cassettes on my boom box for a nerd camp dance while my unrequited crush stayed in her room. What I never crossed off my professional life list was acting, either regular or voice, but while I still yearn for that big breakthrough -- seriously, ask...

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